Closer
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: An apachai fic! Apachai is a second year college student who longs to experience his first love. so when his first love falls into his lap, it's only natural that he would hold onto that person. right? rated M just in case.
1. Chapter 1

This will be a bit unconventional but maybe it'll be good.

I've noticed that most of the pairings are MiuxKenichi, TakedaxKenichi, NatsuxKenichi, KenichixShigure, KenichixSakaki.

And yeah I have a few for Akisame and OC's.

But no one seems to be wondering about poor little Apachai. And that sort of makes me sad because he has such potential for a pairing. Especially given how gentle and kind he is.

So- Here may be the first ever ApaxOC. (laughs uncontrollably)

This is going to be fun!

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The music was much louder than the group had expected it to be, aside from Kensei and Sakaki, the others from Ryozanpkau had never been to a club before yet they couldn't leave now. Not when they had promised Apachai who had asked to go out on the town for the night to celebrate passing his second year in the local college.

The group made their way up to the second floor, away from most of the crowd and found themselves a booth where they could sit, drink some booze, and enjoy the company of their friends without being bothered.

Sakaki sat back from the table with a glass of gin in his hand. While Akisame, Shigure, Kensei, and the elder master drank the scotch that they had ordered a few minutes ago as Apachai looked around the crowded building, taking in the flashing lights in vivid hues of blue, green, yellow and red. Then looked down at the dance floor at all the people in scandalously revealing clothes pressing against each other, grinding, having the time of their lives.

Up until three years ago, Apachai had never experienced a lot of things.

Like the joys of going to school and making friends. He'd been a martial artist all his life. Having sacrificed his education, his chance to meet normal people and interact with them; to perfect his talents at Muay Thai.

However after a series of events, he and the other masters had gained more than their fair share of free time. Upon which Apachai had asked Akisame, the most knowledgeable of the masters at Ryozanpaku to teach him what he would need to know so that he could go to college.

Akisame had done as he had asked, nearly killing him more than once in his endeavors to cram a lifetime of knowledge into Apachai's head. And just to make sure that Apachai learned quickly, Akisame had punished him _severely_ everytime he failed to grasp something right away.

But in the end it had worked wonderfully.

Apachai had learned everything, and in his spare time had picked up several new hobbies. Like reading _everything_ he could get his hands on. Science, history, war- He read books on animal behavior, ancient civilazations, any thing at all that he could get his hands on.

He'd read so much that he went through five books every day. And his speaking patterns had changed because of this. His vocabulary was larger, his understanding of things was now much better than it had been before.

And he could now carry on intelligent conversations with Akisame and very _rarely_ got confused.

There was just one small thing- Something that had nagged at him for a while now. Ever since Kenichi and Miu had gotten engaged to be exact. Everyone at some point was meeting someone nice and settling down.

Shigure had met a guy and had been dating.

Akisame had found himself a nice woman that he enjoyed spending time with. Apachai suspected it was because she could outwit him. And nothing got the man to pay attention faster than being outwitted.

Sakaki had been married for a while about a year ago. But he and his wife had seperated fro reasons that he didn't feel like sharing.

Which just left Apachai. Who had had several crushes after starting college, but the girls were so intimidated by his size and build that they refused to date him if he managed to muster enough courage to ask them out.

He felt Sakaki's hand grab his wrist and looked back at his friends with a startled look on his face. "You okay Apachai?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Really? Because you don't seem to be having much fun just sitting here drinking with us."

"I'm fine." Apachai assured his friends with a smile despite the growing ache in his chest.


	2. Chapter 2

It was half past two and Sakaki was passed out from trying to drink Akisame under the table. Kensei had hit the dance floor a while ago with Shigure and was now harassing a group of semi naked young women dancing together.

The elder and Akisame were continuing their drinking contest. So far the elder master was winning.

Which left Apachai alone to observe the people on the floor below.

They looked like they were having so much fun that he sort of wanted to try going down there and asking one of the women to dance, but after a moment or so of mental debate he recalled that he didn't know how to dance. So dancing with someone would probably be a bad thing.

He saw Kensei dancing with a pretty girl in a slinky black dress and smiled.

_At least someone was having fun_. Apachai thought as he scanned the room, observing the various interactions. He stayed there in his spot, with his elbows resting on the railing that seperated the top second floor from the first, for so long that his elbows were starting to hurt a little bit from where he had been resting some of his weight on them.

He was about to move away from the railing and rejoin the others at the table behind him when he saw something that caught his attention. Something that looked so strangely out of place in the club that he started to follow it with his eyes without realizing what he was doing.

The 'object' in question moved under a blue light and Apachai sucked in a breath as he caught sight of pale silvery blond hair with pink highlights, pulled back into a thick braid, small ears, a slender neck, delicate build...

_A woman_. He was watching a woman.

The moment this regestered with him he felt his face heat up yet he couldn't look away.

She was just dressed so classy. So _innocently_. She didn't fit in with the rest of the crowd. In fact she stuck out like a sore thumb. She was also drawing a lot of attention to herself without seeming to realize it.

He watched her weave her way through the crowd, pausing form time to time to look over her shoulder, a worried look on her face- Apachai found himself moving towards the stairs, his unblinking stare fixated on her.

She looked like she was in trouble. And if that was so, then as a defender of the innocent; he could do nothing _but_ make himself available to come to her aid.

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Shayera Karina Minamoto, heiress to the Minamoto fortunes, was shaking like a leaf. Who could blame her after what had just happened.

She had been out for a late night stroll because she hadn't been able to sleep and had noticed that she was being followed. After several minutes she had also noticed that the footsteps were getting closer and had started to turn around when she had seen the silvery grey of a gun being pulled.

Acting on instinct, she had taken off running and somehow managed to keep track of the person running after her until she had reached a corner right outside of the club and started to run across the road.

The person following her had stopped and just stood there on the curb, confusing her enough to stop and turn to see what he was doing. At which time a car came barreling out of nowhere and had almost hit her.

She had managed to dodge being hit by the car and run into the club without a second thought. It hadn't occurred to her until once she was inside that whoever was after her might come in and shoot the place up, or plow their car through the wall then shoot the place up.

Which was why she was trying so hard to get to the other side of the room, away from the front door.

She stopped several feet from the bar and looked around, noting the windows, and other things. Trying to think up a way that she could get out of here without someone getting hurt when she felt the air stir behind her and turned around so quickly that she slammed herself into what felt like a brick wall before she fell.

She was fully prepaired to hit the floor and get some new bruises when she felt strong hands gently grasp her shoulders and pull her upright. She looked up...and up and felt her eyes widen a little bit in alarm as she caught sight of the guy that she had run into. _Oh...my..._

He was a big guy, standing at six foot eight with a body builders build. He grey eyes were focused on her face, a concerned look on his face as he removed his hands from her shoulders and leaned down a little bit.

"Hey, you okay?" He asked, his voice a deep soft rumbling sound that would have been drwoned out by the music blairing over the speakers if he hadn't have been _right there_ in her face. She opened her mouth to say something but her mind had stopped working for the moment and all that would come out was a pathetic sounding squeak.

The guy knelt down in front of her and once again placed his hands on her shoulders, then slipped them down her arms to her hands before maneuvering her so that her back was turned and trailed his finger tips along her spine. And she was so frozen in fear that it never even occurred to her to smack him or tell him off.

No she was too worried that if she said or did anything he might rip her head off. God knew that he was certainly big enough to do such a thing. She felt his fingers stop just shy of the small of her back a second before he forciablly turned her back around and frowned.

She didn't seem to be hurt, although she did have a few bruises on her, he could tell by the way she had twitched and jerked when his fingers had come into contact with the tender flesh while he had been checking to make sure that he hadn't accidentally hurt her when she had slammed into him.

"Hey, tell me your name." It wasn't a question, nor was it very politely said. Apachai was worried that she may be hurt so he would ignore propriety for the time being and make it up to her later.

She squeaked again and he sighed and picked her up earning a startled yelp from her a second before she wrapped her arms around his neck and started crying. Crap. One would think that she believed he was going to eat her alive or something.

He sighed and awkwardly patted her back as he turned and started to make his way back to the stairs figuring that if Akisame wasn't too drunk then he could look her over to make sure that she was okay.


	3. Chapter 3

Akisame and Hayato were tied, 22 for 22 and were about to down their twenty third drinks of the evening when the elder paused and looked towards Akisame's left then subtly elbowed him in the ribs to get him to look. Akisame took the hint and turned his head to the left and noticed Apachai was standing there with a terrified young woman in his arms.

_Oh dear._ Akisame thought as he put his drink down as Apachai set the young woman down and then nudged her closer to the table and said, "Could you check her over to make sure that she didn't get hurt when she bumped into me? She isn't talking to me."

Akisame made a soft humming sound and reached out a hand and said cheerfully, "Of course Apachai-" Then glanced at the woman, smiled and rudely shoved Sakaki out of his seat causing the man to hit the floor with a dull thud where he started snoring, and patted the cushioning, beckoning her closer. "But first lets try to calm the young ladys nerves. It wouldn't do for her to go into hysterics and have us kicked out of the club."

Shayera stood there, numb as she thought about tonights events before realizing that the giant and his friends were talking about her like she wasn't there. Some foriegn part of her mind recognised the disrespectful behavior and snapped her out of her funk long enough to snap in an irked tone, _"Stop talking about me as if I'm not here." _

Akisame looked at the woman with a wide eyed innocent look. But his smile gave him away.

"Forgive us, miss. But it was necessary to get you to speak up for yourself. Please, have a seat. We'll buy you a drink-" Shay opened her mouth to decline his invitation. But the next words out of the strange man's mouth stopped her. "Then once your nerves are calm, you can tell us all about what caused those bruises on your arms, back and legs."

Her mouth snapped shut and she automatically sat down and stared straight ahead wondering what else this night had in store for her.

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They walked into the club with their guns safely tucked under their jackets at the small of their backs and looked around. Trying to spot their target so that they could move in on her, put one of their guns against her back and subtly remove her from the building.

Aari scanned the crowd behind his sunglasses. Not seeing any signs of the heiress that they had set out to kidnap.

"You don't think that she went out the back do you?" Aari asked. Sern shook his head no. There was no way that some ditzy pampered little princess could slip out the back and escape. Not with one of their partners watching the door.

She could however hook herself up with someone that she thinks would protect her. It would be a stupid move. Especially since they would have to kill whoever she hooked up with. But whatever. They'd take care of anyone that got in their way and take the woman like they had been ordered too.

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Shay put her second glass down and took a deep shuddering breath. The guy next to her let out a low impressed whistle. "My, my, you've done things like this before haven't you miss."

"N-No." Shay said as she looked around for any traces of the guy that she had seen as the effects of the alcohol hit her. Leaving her feeling overly warm, her mind fuzzy. What had she come in here for? She had known a second ago. But whatever it was...well she just couldn't recall now.

"Are you alright?" Akisame asked, concern coloring his tone. She nodded her head.

"I-I'm fine..."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"Well if you're sure. Now why don't you tell us how you-" Akisame was cut off by Apachai who stood up out of his chair suddenly and held his hand out to her. Akisame shut his mouth and watched curiously as the woman hesitantly took his friends hand and let him pull her to her feet and then looked at him and said,

"We're going to dance for a few."

Akisame gave him a surprised look and smiled then waved them off with one hand while he returned to his drinking game with the elder as Apachai led Shayera away.


	4. Chapter 4

The crowd of people parted like the red sea parted for Moses. Some people gave him strange looks while others got irked by his hulking presence on the dance floor. Apachai didn't pay them any mind though.

He was more forcused on the woman pressed against his side. Her unsteady steps, while some what amusing to him, were also worrying. She hadn't had much alcohol so she must be what Sakaki commonly referred too as a lightweight.

He stopped their walk across the dance floor and picked some random dimly lit place on the outskirts of the floor and grasped one the woman's small hands in his and spun her around- not too quickly mind you, he didn't want her getting sick and throwing up on him. But spun her slowly, so that she was forced to move away from his side so that he could wrap an arm around her slender waist and slowly started to lead her around in an odd waltz like dance.

"Are you feeling alright?" He asked after a few moments or so of silence. Shay tipped her head back and looked up at him, her face flushed, her eyes glazed- It was the effects of the drink she'd had. Apachai knew this but couldn't help thinking that she looked lovely.

She blinked and tried to speak, but when her voice didn't seem to want to work so instead she snapped it shut and just nodded her head before managing to say. "I-I'm fine. Much better now that I was before."

Apachai smiled at her while wondering what it was that had upset her so much before. "Do you want to talk about it?" He asked curiously. She quickly shook her head no and started to look around the dance floor around them, and Apachai couldn't help noticing that she was scanning the people of the club in a paranoid manner.

"Your acting as if someone or something is after you." He pointed out slyly, expecting her to deny what he'd said and was more than a little bit annoyed when she didn't say anything. _Ah so that's it._ Apachai thought as he sub consciously tightened his grip on her a fraction and looked around the sea of faces for anything suspicious. He didn't spot anything out of the ordinary at first.

Then after a moment or so he noticed a couple of guys in suits, wearing heavy jackets and sunglasses, skulking around the dance floor. Scanning the crowd anxiously. _Damn._ _Those guys must be the ones that she's afraid of. _Apachai thought as he scooped the woman up and quickly made himself disappear into the shadows as one of them came close to where he and the woman had been dancing.

The woman looked up at him and started to ask him what he was doing, suddenly feeling worried that this man might be thinking of doing something like getting cozy with her in the shadows but he quickly covered her mouth and made a low hushing sound. And as tipsy as Shay was she knew that his attention wasn't completely on her. It was on something else.

Something that caused him to hunch his shoulders a little bit and turn his body just a little bit as someone walked by. She grasped his large hand in hers and tipped her head back just enough to see the guy that had been chasing her earlier and felt the bottom drop out of her stomach in dread.

_Oh god_, they'd found her.


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay, here's the forth chapter. **

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Apachai led the way back down to the dance floor, ever aware of his grasp on the tiny delicate hand held within his own as the woman tried to pull her hand free and reason with him. She hadn't come here to dance. He knew that, after all- he wasn't an idiot. He knew that she had likely been chased into the club by someone wanting to corner her.

And it would have worked if not for all the people, which told him that whoever was after her was armed. Possibly to the teeth.

Which meant that the fools obviously thought to use their weapons on her either in a dark corner somewhere, or they were planning to force everyone out and grab her in all the confusion. It was a bit of a cliché plan, but why argue with progress. He thought with a mental shrug as he hit the bottom step and scooped the woman up in his arms. She was weaving slightly on her feet, making him think that the drink that she had been given a few minutes ago had gone straight to her head.

And since he didn't want her to wind up tripping over her own feet or falling flat on her face- his arms were the safest place for her to be at the moment as he wound his way through the crowd until he found a nice spot that was well within eye range of the other masters but allowed for some privacy too and put her back down on her feet, noting the way she suddenly grabbed onto his shirt sleeves and stumbled a bit as he recaptured one of her hands in his and placed his other hand on her slender waist.

Hoping that that was all that would be needed to hold her upright.

Thankfully, he wasn't wrong though she did sort of keep her death grip on his sleeves and tilt her head back to look at him for a moment, her expression curious. Perhaps wondering what he was planning to do to her.

He wasn't planning anything to her. He almost wanted to kick himself for that fact- god knew that she was certainly beautiful enough to heat his blood and stir some very, _very_ ungentlemanly desires in him. But no. He didn't plan on doing anything to her but maybe steal a dance while he did some information gathering. Besides, something told him that this woman wasn't for him.

She was so tiny and frail looking that he almost feared applying pressure with his fingertips lest he accidentally break her bones. Pulling her in a little closer to his body, he waited until the song currently playing ended so that he could dance with her. And once the music started, he absently took a step- forcing her to follow as he took another and another until he had them going around in a waltz as he asked her again, "What's you're name?"

The woman looked down at their feet for a moment, totally ignoring his question, then looked back up at his face. Her eyes were wide and had a peculiar startled quality to them that made him think that he had really just surprised her here.

Her small pink tongue came out to wet her lips, giving them such a perfectly sultry look that Apachai found himself mentally quoting mathematical equations to kill the sudden jolt of lust that had his body aching as he patiently waited for her to answer him. Finally after what seemed to be an short (but no less hellish) eternity to him, she finally said. "S-Shayera Minamoto."

The giant frowned down at her for a moment then asked, "The heiress?" His deep rumbling voice causing her to shiver as she nodded her head.

"I see," He said as he continued to lead her through the waltz dance steps even as the song blaring over the speakers ended and another one began. "That explains part of why you were so reluctant to tell me who you were earlier." He said as her face went as white as a sheet and gripped his shirt sleeves so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

"Please, I need to get out of here-"

"Let me guess, there's someone after you," The giant said as he looked away and scowled as if he were aggravated that she had to leave as soon as possible. She nodded her head as his grey eyes flickered to her face again and he sighed and muttered, "It never fails-" Then smiled at her and said, "Don't worry yourself over those people. Something tells me that they've just gotten in _way_ over their heads."

She blinked at him, wondering what he meant as he suddenly leaned down so that their faces were almost just a hairs breath apart and lifted the hand that had been resting lightly on her waist to tuck a stray strand of her pale silvery blond hair behind her ear and smiled before scooping her up again in his arms. "Don't look so scared, Miss Minamoto. Nothing is going to happen to you while my friends and I are with you." He said as she looked down at him with a strange look on her face a moment before she laid her head on his shoulder and seemed to relax a bit.

Poor thing, she must have really been stressed out. He thought as he waded through the crowd once again and headed back up the stairs, noting that not once did Miss Minamoto lift her head. Perhaps she had been so stressed out that she had let herself slip into unconsciousness.

It certainly wasn't unheard of for someone stressed to do so. If the circumstances were right, that is.

Once back at the table with Akisame and Hayato, Apachai very carefully and gently maneuvered Miss Minamoto so that she was laying in the booth where Sakaki had been sitting earlier and grabbed the jacket that he had worn out tonight and used it to cover her as Akisame put his drink down and glanced over at him then then woman and frowned and asked, "Is everything alright Apachai?"

"No. We need to wake up Sakaki and find the others."

"You sound like there's about to be trouble, my boy." Hayato said. Apachai looked back down at the woman, his expression unreadable for a moment before he glanced back at them and said very clearly,

"There is."


End file.
